“What, exactly, do you do?” Slack. Jawed. Amazement. This question is coming from someone I trust. A trusted employee who has been working in my group at the start-up for years. This guy always tells me the straight dope and now he’s asking me what I do with my day because he honestly does not… more
Tony passes me the hallway at lunch, basketball in hand, and the conversation goes like this: Me: “Hey Tony, how was basketball?” Tony: “It’s good. I was playing with Phil and he mentioned his team was working on Gimbleflibbits.” Me: “Gimbleflibbits? That sounds a whole lot like our effort on Trimbleflibbits. Did you mention we… more
Anyone who’s worked with me has stumbled on my policy on remote employees. The short answer is, “No”. The longer answer is, “The team is moving far too fast for you to miss the various hallway conversations which randomly point us in different directions.” Software is art. It’s team art. When the team collectively decides… more
Managers, wanna-be managers, and folks who want to understand managers simply need to read the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Green and Joost Elffers. I’ve purposely not done any background research on this document because my first reaction to this list was profound and I wanted to stare at that reaction. There’s some pretty… more
Everyone at work chuckles when I, once again, tell them I was out with the chain saw this weekend. They’re laughing because they’re trying to picture their nerd boss act like a mountain man. Fact of the matter is, I am a nerd. I do call Verizon every month or so to see when they’ll… more
Somewhere in your third year of being a manager, the Management Pixies will appear in your office in a puff of sweet smelling black smoke. There will be three of them and one will be carrying a gorgeous black top hat. “Are you LeRoy McManager?” “I am.” The Pixies laugh. “Congratulations, you have passed successful… more
There’s a never ending battle going on in your software development team right now. It’s the battle between the Organic Engineers and the Mechanical Engineers and it sounds like this: Organics: “Software is art!” Mechanics: “Software is logic! It’s fact! And it’s a lot of work.” Organics: “You’re right! It’s work but it’s artful work.”… more
Lunch at Don Giovanni’s with Phillip. He’s amped. We haven’t even seen our waiter and he’s already cleared the table and is scribbling furiously on the white paper table cloth. “See, we needed to speed up our release cycle which is, of course, insane, but we figured out a way! We call it Train releases.… more
With the completion of the Fez column, I have enough content to start stitching together a book based off my various management essays. Book publishing has never been a stated goal, but based on the response to many of the articles, there’s a good chance folks outside the webosphere might find my management musings of… more
Some time during your tenure as a manager the sky is going to fall. I’m not talking about a schedule slip or a spirited meeting or being screwed. I’m talking a total disaster… yelling… fighting. Best case, HR is involved. Worst case, so are lawyers. This is conflict of a magnitude you’ll only see a… more